“The impact of arts education on my career is complete, total, and it saved my life. I no longer thought of school in semesters; I thought of it as: we do a play in the fall, we do a musical in the winter, and we had a student run theater group called Brick Prison which we would do in the spring. I was a writer with a deadline because I really wanted to get a play into Brick. That was the focus of my creative efforts for as long as I can remember.”
England’s Oldest Cookbook, Commissioned By Richard II In 1387
The Forme of Cury features nearly 200 recipes from a feast Richard and his uncle, John of Gaunt, held in September of that year. (includes 629-year-old dessert recipe)
The Woman Whose Life And Death Could Provide A Sequel To ‘Hamilton’
“Today, if people know anything about Theodosia [Burr Alston], it is because of the lovely lullaby ‘Dear Theodosia,’ sung by the character of Aaron Burr in the sensational musical Hamilton. But the real-life Theodosia grew from a beloved child into a highly intelligent, complex adult, whose fascinating story is largely unknown and worthy of its very own Broadway smash.”
A Daisy Chain Of The 82 Funniest Books
“With the publication this month of Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple’s follow-up to Where’d You Go, Bernadette, we got to wondering: What’s the funniest book by a living writer? Well, who better to ask than Maria Semple? The Seattle-based novelist told us her three favorite funny books, so then we asked those three authors. Then we kept asking.”
We Use Words To Talk To Others, But Why Do We Need Them To Think To Ourselves?
“Rats in experiments solve mazes without the words ‘Remember that left turn.’ So why do human brains so often rely on language in order to reason and remember? [Research psychologist Charles] Fernyhough has an answer in mind.”
Explaining The Philadelphia Orchestra Strike (And Suggesting The Man Who Could Do It Best)
Peter Dobrin: “Anyone who thought the walkout [at the opening gala] was staged simply for effect, or as an act of petulance, should have really studied the musicians’ faces. They looked miserable, and maybe a little surprised themselves. … But there’s one person uniquely capable of explaining to board and donors why the musicians behaved the way they did and to validate, at the very least, some of their most sincere concerns.”
Charles Dutoit, At 80, Says Women Conductors Can Be ‘Even Better’ Than Men, But Young People Today Are ‘Well-Informed But Uncultivated’
“There is no reason why women cannot lead orchestras. Their talent is the same as men’s. Often women are even better. … Today there are no myths and young people can access an excessive amount of information. … Everything is done quickly, and because of this, … people are well informed but uncultivated.”
Philadelphia Museum Of Art Prepares For Major Construction
“The museum’s massive $196 million ‘core project,’ a product of the institution’s master plan first developed by architect Frank Gehry and his firm in 2006, will hit with full force after the new year. While virtually all of the public collection will remain accessible for the duration of the project (expected to wrap in spring 2020), museum officials say, there will be notable obstacles to negotiate during construction.”
L.A. Opera Extends Plácido Domingo’s Contract Again
“Legendary tenor Plácido Domingo has renewed his contract as general director of Los Angeles Opera through the 2021-22 season … Domingo’s positions within the company have included artistic consultant from 1984 to 2000, artistic director from 2000 to 2003 and finally, general director from 2003 until now.”
How Computers Are Learning How To Listen and Write Music
“In July, a team of scientists from Queen Mary University of London reported they had trained a neural network to determine musical genres with 75% accuracy by feeding it with 6,600 songs in three genres: ballad, dance, and hip-hop. Then they tore apart the layers of the computer’s neural network in order to see what the network learned at each layer when the scientists exposed it to songs from Bach and Eminem.”
Another Critic Is Fired Because Those He Covered Complained
Colin Thomas was the longtime theatre reviewer at Vancouver’s alt-weekly The Georgia Straight. Last week he surprised the theatre community with a blog post that began: “I just got fired from The Georgia Straight. Thirty years. No warning. No compensation.”
Are We Loving Banksy To Commercial Death?
“Is this ‘exit through the gift shop’ an ironic and knowing wink at Banksy’s critique of the commercialisation of street art in his 2010 movie? Is it possible to own an ironic Banksy mug?”
Pro-Trump Art Show ‘From A Nightmare Trio’ Is Called Off
“Gay conservative artist Lucian Wintrich was behind the planned exhibit at Pierogi, which was set to be called #DaddyWillSaveUs, as Fox News reported. Fox says the show’s title is a reference to the gay conservative practice of referring to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as ‘Daddy.'”
Was Hitler A Sock Puppet For Himself?
“In the early fall of 1923, when Adolf Hitler was still mostly known for his frenzied speeches at Munich beer halls, a slim biography was published that lauded him as the savior of the German nation and even compared him to Jesus. … New research says Hitler penned the work himself.”
The Guy Who Started A Shakespearean Theatre Company When He Was 8 Years Old
“We sprint to the dressing room, throw off our Vans and put on Elizabethan boots, toss tunics straight over our Nirvana T-shirts, and run around the woods to make our entrance on Shakespeare & Company’s verdant outdoor stage in Lenox, Mass.”
Dancing For City Ballet As A New Parent
“I was talking to a former dancer, Pauline Golbin, who’s had two babies, and she said, ‘Doesn’t your dancing just feel more efficient?’ I said, ‘That’s a great word for it.’ I don’t use way too much energy anymore, and I can just dance. I’m calmer.”
Netflix Is Coming (Harder) For Movie Theatres, And Some Chains Are Furious
“Under the terms of this 10-picture deal [with iPic Entertainment], the luxury theater chain will screen original Netflix films in its 15 upscale theaters in cities including Los Angeles and New York.”
A Big (Super Heavy) Beautiful New Book Of David Hockney’s Works Will Set You Back Thousands Of Dollars
“The volume is so vast that it comes with its own adjustable bookstand and is as heavy as an armchair.”
Philosophers Who Want Their Discipline To Be More Inclusive And Diverse Receive Literal Bags Of Shit In The Mail
“‘It’s clearly directed at people who are trying to improve the profession,’ she said. ‘For me, it just shows that our profession is totally unwilling to be corrected.'”
Venezuela Is In Systemic, Grinding Crisis, But Its Orchestra Is At Carnegie Hall
“For all the good El Sistema does, its closeness to the government has made many wonder whether it and the Bolívars are inextricable from — or even function as a kind of propaganda mission for — a regime that has dragged its people to disaster. And concertgoers might even ask how they should approach listening to this orchestra at this particular fraught moment.”
The Composer Who Sees David Bowie As A Muse
“Mr. Branca first crossed paths with Bowie in 1981, when they were working on projects at the same Manhattan studio, the Power Station, and would pass each other in the hallway. Bowie was aware of Mr. Branca’s work. On the title song of the album ‘Tin Machine,’ Bowie refers to the composer: ‘Fractured words and Branca-sonic/Anger trapped behind locked doors/And right between the eyes.'”
Five Paintings Stolen In 2005 Return To Their Dutch Museum Home
“The crates had been delivered early that morning from Ukraine, where they were discovered in the hands of an ultranationalist militia group last year.”
Artists And Anonymity. There Are Problems
“It is interesting that writers cannot “reasonably expect” to keep their names unpublished, given how many have down the years. Daniel Defoe published as Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift as Lemuel Gulliver (with phoney portrait). Aphra Behn published pseudonymously. So did Henry Fielding. Samuel Richardson was anonymous and Jane Austen was just “a Lady”. Horace Walpole, all three Brontës and George Eliot all had noms de plume, and Eliot’s stuck. Even today, the famously anonymous are everywhere you look.”
Verbal Complexity Was Considered Elitist. So How Did TV Become The Place Where It Flourishes?
“We live in an epoch in which the battle for the complex and the resistant seems (“seems” is the operative word, as it often is) to have been lost. One of its early casualties was prose style. Style is not just a writer’s personal signature; and yet “classic style” is an oxymoron, because style is essentially idiosyncratic.”
On-Demand Culture Means You Don’t Own That Book, Movie Or Song You Think You Just Bought
“With the move to cloud computing and streaming content, the concept of “copy ownership” is now disappearing from entertainment as well. Software, motion pictures, and even music are increasingly a service provided to you. Streaming services and cloud content have their own worries. For example, what happens when you’re traveling somewhere with no reliable internet access? What happens when the service provider’s servers go down for days and you are paying for a service you are not getting? But the problems run deeper. The loss of ownership sends copyright law out to sea.”